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Which Toys-to-Life Game Should Be Under Your Christmas Tree?

It wasn’t the very first game in the genre, but it’s safe to credit Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure with kicking off the whole toys-to-life phenomenon in 2011.

That sounds surprising, given Skylanders publisher Activision isn’t exactly known for innovation. They’re usually criticised as a house of annual updates to series like Call of Duty. They’re also one of the world’s most profitable game publishers.

So actually… it makes perfect sense. If Activision was ever going to innovate, it had to be with an annual franchise that demands players (parents) buy endless new accessories to unlock content and keep up with their friends.

From a parent’s point of view, that’s Skylanders and toys-to-life in a nutshell, an expensive nightmare – although those who can afford it find toys-to-life games a fun way to play with their children.

For kids, it’s a craze they love.

To help you out with your present shopping, here’s our guide to the big three toys-to-life games for Christmas 2015.

Skylanders Superchargers

Let’s take a sec to explain how toys-to-life works. It’s a regular video game, except you can add new characters by placing special figures on an NFC ‘portal.’ You get a couple of figures, the portal and the game in a starter pack – then you have to buy more figures. And a whole new set comes out each year.

The newest Skylanders set is Superchargers, which introduces vehicles and racing to the series. In fact, about half the game involves driving.

A cool addition to Skylanders Superchargers is the amiibo figures. Special Donkey Kong and Bowser figures are available for the Wii U and 3DS versions, and they work in both Superchargers and as amiibo figures. Nice!

But most importantly for budget-conscious parents, with Superchargers you don’t need to buy loads of toys. While previous Skylanders games required many different toys to unlock all their game content, you can play the whole of Superchargers with only four toys. That’s welcome news for a lot of people.

Disney Infinity 3.0

Skylanders is all well and good, but are its characters as lovable as those from Disney IP – which now include Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar? For many kids, probably not.

Now in its third iteration – figures from the original game and version 2.0 still work with 3.0 – Disney Infinity is a mix of platform gaming and a sandbox world. In other words, kids can play through traditional game levels or create their own play areas.

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